The Martial Unity

Rui had already created an anti-Fae style in all the time he had known her. This was one of the best parts of the VOID algorithm, the growths he made against a particular fighter would accumulate. He would come closer and closer to victory the more he fought against one particular fighter as the adaptive evolution of the VOID algorithm grew more and more refined and accurate.

But he yet never beaten her. This wasn't because he was too weak, they simply hadn't had a chance to fight seriously in recent times, The last time they had a serious spar was nearly a year ago, more than two of his training phases ago, a little before the winter holidays.

Although they had sparred when Rui was training the Outer Convergence technique, that was far from a real fight with many restrictions, furthermore Rui hadn't mastered Outer Convergence back then. Thus, the results of those training spars were entirely irrelevant.

After that Rui had been on a non-stop back-and-forth between training and mission phases, and he simply never fought her seriously. The two hadn't tested their recent capabilities against each other.

('Today, that changes.')

He adopted a kick-boxing stance with an emphasis on leg room and kicking mobility. The first trait his adapted style needed to have against Fae was greater range. Fae's Martial Art was centered around open palm attacks. Palm attacks had shorter range than fists and much shorter range than legs. By adopting a stance that catered to launching long-range attacks quickly and swiftly, he would be able to hurt Fae while she would be unable to land strikes on him as easily.

However, by the estimation of the VOID algorithm, she would be able to launch a greater number of attacks, meaning he wouldn't be able to prevent her from penetrating past his range-restrictive defense.

Thus, Rui estimated, via the VOID algorithm, that his Martial Art would also need a focus on evasive maneuvering.

The end-result outcome as a ranged-striking evasive Martial Art that would pepper Fae with strikes from outside her Martial Art while also evading any advances on her part to get into palm-striking range.

All of this was done in the span of a few seconds.

When Rui focused, time almost slowed down to him. Catering to him.

He could feel every cell in his body cooperating as they gathered energy at the core of his body.

He could feel his concentration accumulating.

could feel his focus

opened his eyes, he saw but

opponent. His target. His

as she felt a faint

the sheer pressure they emanated could be felt

supervisor commenced

BAM!

the ground with her feet with such force

towards Rui, launching a tremendous palm attack at him. The sheer momentum she had generated caused the generation of

WHOOSH

his maneuvering techniques, ceding ground. But

DASH

him, launching

WHOOSH

into a feint; missing Rui

POW

of her way with a smooth

POW

pulled back and struck her in

first clean hit of the

DASH

launching a flurry

of the VOID algorithm had begun to show its true formidability. Rui avoided almost every single palm strike with a combination of evasive retreatment with his maneuvering techniques as well as counter-evasion with feints from the Phantom Step